Babies Proms - Adelaide Youth Sinfonia

Grainger Studio - Hindley Street

Sunday 28 October 2007

On Sunday I took my son to the city to see the Adelaide Youth Sinfonia perform in a children's concert called "Babies Proms!". It was a concert aimed at 0-5 year olds and performed at the Grainger Studio on Hindley Street.

The orchestra performed music such as 'Row Row Your Boat', 'Mission Impossible', 'Wild', 'March' from Carmen, 'Slavonic Dance No.8', 'The Music for the Royal Fireworks 4&5' and 'Night on Bald Mountain'.

I am not sure of the ages of the youth orchestra, they seemed to range any where from 10 to 18, and these guys really did a wonderful job. It was great to see that they were able to keep their composure and perform with so many toddlers running around to distract them!

The conductor 'Joanne Drimatis' allowed the children time to interact with the band and actually allowed the children and parents to wander around the orchestra while they were performing - the only rule was to look but don't touch!

The performance was hosted by 'Bronwen James', she encouraged all the children to stomp, crawl, and dance to the music, and they all followed her around copying the actions.

This performance lasted really only for about 40 minutes which was a little disappointing, because just as the kids were really getting into it, it seemed to end - I guess considering the age group it was aimed at, the kids generally loose concentration not long after. (I think for selfish reasons I would have liked an extra 15 minutes added!)

For about $10 a ticket this was a lovely experience for the whole family, it was definitely something different to do, and no child at the performance looked disappointed.

The winner for my child was that each child walked away with a helium balloon which was a big bonus as well after the show!

It's A Kind of Magic - Festival Theatre

21 October 2007 - 6:00pm

What do you get when you get 4 guys dressed to look and play instruments like one of the world’s best rock bands?

You get a damn good tribute show that is what you get!

Last night, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see “It’s a kind of Magic” which is a tribute to the band that was QUEEN. Ever since seeing the fantastic show “We Will Rock You” at Star City in Sydney, I have been a major Queen fan. I have all the albums (including ‘We Will Rock You’ sound track), and relish in the geniuses that was Freddy Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.

The first thing that I am going to say is that it is weird to see a ‘Rock’ performance at the Festival Theatre, because well firstly from my experiences people usually prefer to sit and bop in this theatre, they don’t get off their butts, and last night was no exception. Craig Pesco who did a wonderful performance as Freddy Mercury did his best to continually try to get the audience to their feet, but it seemed everyone that sat central to the stage did not want to move, I don’t know why, even the people in the disabled seats behind me made more of an effort - and they had an excuse. Towards the end of the show most of the patrons got up and danced and clapped, but there was still a heap of people not budging from their seats. Is this an Adelaide thing??? Are we that conservative here, because I honestly have no idea how you can go to a Queen show and not dance!

Unfortunately I was not old enough and probably on the wrong continent to ever have got the opportunity see QUEEN live, but from the footage and film clips that I have seen, I really feel that this tribute performance was almost near enough to the real thing. They performed all of the classics such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’, ‘We Are the Champions’, and my personal favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Craig Pesco even did Freddy to a tee and put on the maid out fit to do a rendition of ‘I Want To Break Free’, he had the leather pants, the feather duster to thrust into and the fake boobs to flash at the audience – (may I say a very perky set as well!!!)

The cast consisted of Craig Pesco who was obviously the star as Freddy Mercury, (and was brilliant might I add), but could not have pulled off the performance without the support from the other members who where:
‘Travis Hair’ as Brian May – who looked the part and played the guitar with precision
‘Brett Milliken’ as Roger Taylor – who apart from a really bad blonde wig, did an amazing solo drum performance, and almost got a full standing ovation from the audience on his own!
‘Mitch Cairns’ as John Deacon – who played Bass in a way that John Deacon himself would have been proud.

Apart from the lack of support from the audience the only thing that I thought the show lacked was perhaps a little more footage to celebrate Queen. There was some footage of Freddy Mercury, but maybe leading in from the interval some footage of the entire band doing shows such as Live 8, interviews etc. would have been an added bonus. It is one thing to sing their songs in tribute, but I would have been nice to celebrate their lives and their achievements a little more.

Apparently next week these guys are doing an encore performance again at the Festival Theatre, and I would urge any Queen fan to get a ticket and go, you will not be disappointed. All of the seating on the plan for this performance would be great, so if the only tickets you can get is up in the bleachers don’t worry – you will still enjoy this show!

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For more information about this show check out the official website http://queen.itsakindamagic.com/ and tickets can be brought through BASS.

x

Candy Man – Her Majesty’s Theatre

18 September 2007 – 6:30pm

Well tonight I had the pleasure of seeing Candy Man at her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide.

Candy Man is a story based on the life of Sammy Davis Jnr, it is told by Wayne Scott Kermond in the form of song and dance.

At the beginning of the show Wayne clearly points out that he is not impersonating Sammy Davis Jnr (for obvious reasons) he is simply celebrating his life, and telling the story.

As Wayne performed Sammy Davis Jnr’s songs, I was glad that he did not try to mimic Sammy;s unique voice. He performed each piece with his own interpretation and with feeling and much emotion. You could clearly see that Wayne idolised Sammy Davis Jnr and to be honest I think that Sammy would be moved and honoured at the performance given.

The first song performed was of course ‘Candy Man’ which is probably Sammy Davis Jnr’s biggest international hit. It was then followed by ‘Make-em Laugh’ where Wayne provided his own stand up humour by doing impersonations of celebrities such as ‘Humphrey Bogart’, ‘Sylvester Stallone’, ‘Jerry Lewis’ and ‘Michael Jackson’ – all were very well done and humorous.

The first half continued with songs such as ‘Rock a Bye’, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ and ended with a ‘Sing Sing Sing’ where probably my highlight of the night was that the audience was treated to a wonderful tap dance routine performed by Wayne and his back up dancers who were ‘Veronica Beattie’, ‘Simon Lind’, ‘Tracie Morley’, ‘Troy Phillips’ and ‘Kelly Power’. This routine was wonderfully done and would give ‘Tap Dogs’ a good run for their money.

The second half was a little more serious, reflecting on some of the racial issues that Sammy Davis Jnr faced as well as the break down of his marriage. However the song and dance by the performers was brilliant and kept the audience wanting more.

Wayne Scott Kermond and his team of performers portrayed a wonderful compliment to Sammy Davis Jnr and his life achievements, and Candy Man was a wonderful performance to be enjoyed by all – young and old and for those who have no prior knowledge of Sammy Davis Jnr or his music.

A well deserved standing ovation was given by the audience to the cast and crew at the end of the performance.

Steely Dan - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
11 September 2007

Well for fathers day I bought dad some tickets to see Steely Dan at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, which put me in the good books at least for a little while! Mum didn’t want to go, so I had the pleasure of a father/daughter evening with the old boy!

Firstly I just have to have one little dig at the general population of Adelaide. The show started at 8pm, which was clearly marked on the tickets, but yet the poor staff at the Entertainment Centre was still having to show people to their seats with torches until interval at 9pm. Not only was it disruptive to the people watching the show, but also it must have been annoying to the performers.
Honestly! – If you have tickets to a show, for goodness sake rock up on time, it is only polite!

Ok, now that I have the off my chest, on to the show. Steve Cummings appeared first on stage, this was a surprise because we were expecting World Party as the only back up band. Steve kept it fairly simple performing classics such as “Who Listens to the Radio” he generally did a good job at warming up the approximately 3000 plus crowd.

At change over ‘World Party’ came on this was at about 8:40pm, the stage lights were kept dim with just a quick 5-minute instrument change. The band came on stage and declared that it was their first trip to Australia, and they received a warm welcome. I have not really heard of ‘World Party’ before, and therefore did not know their music. They did however do a cover of ‘Robbie Williams’ song ‘She’s The One’ – I am the greatest Robbie fan so this won me over instantly.

After an interval of about a half hour, Steely Dan came out for their first tour of Australia since they formed over 40 years ago. I guess the first notable major thing was the band. There were about 10 members, which consisted of brass instruments such as two saxophones, a trombone and a trumpet, these added instruments definitely gave a great jazzy rock feel to the atmosphere.

Steely Dan performed most of their hits including ‘Hey Nineteen’, ‘Green Earrings’ and ‘Asia’ which they did well, however I found that on occasions the backing vocalists sometimes drowned out the main vocals by Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. One song that did not do was 'Rikki Dont lose that number' which was kind of suprising since it was one of their bigger hits. I think the crowd was waiting for that song at the end and expected it in a oncor bit it did not happen.

In all the show was pleasant, the crowd (which seemed to be aged maybe 40 plus as a majority), remained seated, but was treated to a chance to step back to their youth and reminisce over music from albums of their past.

Bob Dylan - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
21 August 2007

Well I was given these concert tickets from a friend and can honestly say I barely know what Bob Dylan sings, I knew he did the Hurricane and a few others but that is it. So maybe it is not the best concert to start my first review but well here goes.

Hmmm well ok yes Bob Dylan definately has a unique voice but I don't get why most of his songs sounded the same. He has one of those voices where he almost talks his songs and to be honest he spoke the lyrics so fast that I could not understand what was saying. He obviously has a lot of new music because none of the songs (except one) sounded even remotely familiar to me - and he didn't sing 'the Hurricane' what is with that????

The stage set up was fairly basic, instruments on stage with a black curtain behind the band - nothing overly spectacular, Bob did no outfit changes, but to his credit he did sing for two hours straight. I think it would have been nice though if he had of interacted with his audience a little more.

The audience was quite good and seemed to enjoy the show, those few people who knew all of the songs did generally sing along, everyone else just toe tapped to the beat. There was a small congregation at the front of the stage of die hard fans standing for the best spot in front, but generally most people sat and listened. When he finished the final song, the people in the front of stage area gave a standing ovation and cheered for him to come back and do an encore but he did not make it back out.

Bob Dylan was ok, as I said it is a little hard because I do not know his music, so while I found the concert mildly entertaining, it is not one I will store in my memory bank as a favourite show. That being said, the die hards did seem to enjoy it and I guess that is all that counts!

Here is the deal, I am a generation X chic in my 30's and I love to go to see live shows. I go to heaps of concerts around Adelaide in South Australia and figure that rather than buying expensive merchandise, ill make my souvenir a blog and be a critic on each show.
I always read the write up in the Advertiser about shows and feel that the writer always just highlights the good stuff and sugar coats things to suit publication. Well I have decided that I will just tell it like it is - I dont wont to offend any major fans, I am just giving a single point of view.

I have decided that for the purpose of my blog, I am not going to limit this to concerts, Ill give my view on movies, plays, places to eat - anywhere or anything that I think warrants a mention. I am happy to receive comments either those who aggree or disagree to what I have said, but will not allow any offensive comments to be posted on the blog - I can take constructive criticism and accept that everyone has an opinion......!